Computer-driven printers commonly use a type of paper referred to as tractor feed printer paper. This type of paper has been perforated along opposing longitudinal edges to provide opposing perforated margin pieces. The margin pieces commonly have aligned and equally spaced tractor feed holes punched therethrough. The holes are sized to receive teeth on drive wheels positioned within the printer for positively feeding and moving paper through the printer as directed by the computer. The paper is generally fed to the printer from a stack of fan-folded sheets and caused to be collected in a stack of fan-folded sheets upon exiting the printer.
It is typically desirable to remove the rather unsightly perforated margin pieces from the main portions of the sheets after they pass through the printer. The paper is generally sized such that the main portions will be of the desired size upon removal of the margin pieces. One presently accepted method of removing margin pieces involves grasping a stack of fan-folded sheets with one hand and manually tearing each of the margin pieces from the stack with the other hand. The remaining margin piece is removed in similar fashion.
The above-described method of removal has several drawbacks. Although perforated to provide a tear line, it is not uncommon when removing the margin pieces to tear the main part of the sheet. This requires that the sheet of material be reprinted. To prevent this, people generally use great care to slowly tear the margins from the main body of the sheet thereby adding significantly to the time needed to remove the margin pieces. The manual method of margin piece removal is an insidious waste of time requiring untold hours of secretarial, management and computer operations staff time without meaningful results.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,113 to Elliott shows a "Margin Stripper" which is explained to be useful for removing margin pieces from computer paper. The Elliott device includes a rib on an upper piece which is specifically provided with an outer face for alignment along the perforations of the paper. The force required to securely grip paper using the Elliott invention is greater than desirable and is nonuniform along the length of the device thus leading to uneven tearing, particularly at the starting end. Accordingly, there remains a need for a method and apparatus for enabling margin pieces to be more easily and quickly removed from previously perforated, scored or otherwise prepared sheet material.